Text Books Test Tubes Basketballs and Paper Hearts
by Kumagorogirl
Summary: High school's hard enough as it is without the psychopathic teachers, the weird room mates, and the wonderful yet disastrous relationships. Join Roxas and Sora as they gear-up for their new lives at Oblivion Academy. Axel/Roxas Sora/Riku High School AU
1. Self Portrait

Disclaimer:I have no claim to Kingdom Hearts. If I did I'd make them release the Roxas game in the US this February, not just Japan. It belongs to _Square Enix_ by the by.

Warning, this chapter contains:Swearing.

(spoilers)Future Pairings:Axel/Roxas, Sora/Kairi, Sora/Riku and other mild ones on the side.

Author's Notes:  
This is, indeed, another high school AU. I realize they're quite over done and clique, but they're wickedly fun to write as well. I'll try my hardest to make this a good fic, and keep things moderately original. Meaning everything I use in here will be something I thought up on my own, not something I took from another AU. This fic will be switching first person perspective between Roxas and Sora, for the most part, and will switch off every chapter. You can tell who's POV it is by the large bolded name at the start, which should stop most confusion. The chapters will be staying relatively short, because it allows for fast updates and is just plain easier. I'll be updating chapter 2 soon, but it's currently in the betaing process. Much thanks to you, my betas! I'd love feedback if you could find the time to review; I'm not really satisfied with how this turned out and I'd like to hear what you think. At any rate, ENJOY!

* * *

** Chapter 1: Self Portrait **

**Roxas**

When most kids are little they like to draw, usually just little line art pictures done in crayon, of flowers or dragons or what ever. The thing is, I was one of those kids that just couldn't be creatively structured. My _father_ always wanted me to paint, or sing, anything artistic really. He made me take piano lessons, acting lessons and even _ballet_. But even out of all that, the _worst_ was painting. My _father_ had always wanted to paint when he was younger, but his parents made him focus on his academics first and foremost. "Artists go hungry while scholars eat like kings," they always told me whenever I went over for the occasional dinner.

As far as I'm concerned they're half right at least, I don't think that people will necessarily get paid better as a teacher then they might as a painter. One thing you have to consider when you say stuff like that, is that if someone doesn't have a head for numbers they're not going to get a job at NASA, and likewise if you're tone deaf you won't get a job singing the classics. My _father_ can not for the life of him paint a picture worth five cents, and believe me he's tried.

After a while, he figured out that no one was going to hire him for church ceilings and took over for his father as Head Master of the school he created. So as you might have guessed, my _father_ projected his expectations and dreams onto me. What made it even _worse_ for me, was the fact that I wasn't half bad at it; I got my mom's genes I guess. I could paint pretty fucking well, for a ten year-old at any rate, which just egged him on. It was some time around then that Mom decided she'd had enough. She packed her bags and headed out to Paris on a red-eye flight. I really can't blame her for it; if I could have left, I would have gone with her. My _father_ had conveniently made sure I never got a passport. Mom works for a big fashion design studio somewhere in France now. I don't know much about it, but she writes to me a lot. She tells me that once I finish high school I can move there. Admittedly it's a long time to wait, but I made my vow after her first letter to get the hell out of here as soon as I turned eighteen.

With that in mind, I've survived the past five stifling years of my life. My _father_ and I don't exactly see eye to eye. When I told him I'd rather hang outside with the other kids, he set up an easel on the patio, telling me I could paint the other kids now. For my 13th Birthday I told him I wanted a skateboard or an Xbox 360. He got me, wouldn't you know it, some expensive oil paints and an easel made of marble and ivory. I know, I _probably_ should have appreciated the gesture, but it's not like he was trying to please _me_ anyways, so why bother? It wasn't until I was 14 that I met Hayner and the gang.

Hayner's a kid who lives in my neighborhood. The first time I met him was when I caught him and his two friends, Pence and Olette, graffitiing our fence. I scared them all shitless, I might add. I don't care how much Hayner denies it; he screamed like a little girl. The thing is, I wasn't angry about it at all. It's not like I felt any loyalty to the house that had suffocated me like a pillow over my face. I don't know if it surprised him when I asked for one of the cans and began to spray "FUCK YOU" in large letters along my own fence; if anything, he looked relieved. But then I started laughing and it sounded fucking _creepy_, even to me. I hadn't laughed since Mom left, but now I couldn't stop. I just kept laughing and laughing like a psychopath. When I'd finally finished, I was gasping for breath, bent over on all fours in the dirt. The ringleader, Hayner, a skinny boy in camo pants who's hair looked like a chicken's butt, yanked me up by the arm, and extended his fist to me.

"I'm Hayner," he'd said; his cocky smirk making him look even dorkier. "Looks like you could use some friends."

It was a pretty rude thing to say, and if I'd actually _had_ any friends, I'm sure I would have been offended. But as it so happened, I _didn't_ have any friends and there was something about Hayner that made me feel an immediate kinship with him. I looked at his fist, more then a little confused. Was he going to punch me?

After a minute or so, the girl had coughed loudly to brake the awkward silence we had fallen into. "Pound it, man," Hayner elaborated for my benefit, pushing his fist foreword in a helpful gesture. We knocked our fists together.

From then on, I had three new friends: Hayner, who's pushy and stubborn as a mule, likes to think he's, in the words of Olette, the cat's pajamas. Pence, who is, it seems, the brains of the operation, always investigates stuff around town and listens in on the idle gossip around Tram Common and Station Heights. Olette, the tomboyish girl with the cute smile, I'm pretty sure is only friends with Hayner because he's funnier then cable. Along with me, Roxas, the quite one that Hayner likes to get a rise out of. We made a strange and wonderful foursome, until that is, we got arrested for vandalism.

We'd sprayed our sign, a large triangle with the letters R, P and O at each point and an H in center, onto the side of the clock tower at Station Plaza, which had been a stupid idea, apparently. The station employees saw us and, of course, they called the cops. It was the conversation I had with my _father _when he picked me up at the police station that night that marked the end of my new found life.

"Roxas..." He started talking in that obnoxiously slow way he did with his colleagues. "You start school again in a couple of weeks...correct?"

"Yeah," I answered, feeling way to tired to have a conversation this slow paced. Man, getting arrested really drains you. If I wasn't careful, I'd fall asleep, and _that_ wouldn't go over well.

"I think it would be best.... if you were to attend Oblivion Academy instead of the public high school..." He started to say in his long drawling voice.

"WHAT?! WHY?!" I interrupted, suddenly feeling very defensive.

My _father_ cringed slightly at my volume before answering in his usual monotone. "It seems... that you are in need of a more structured and disciplined environment... for your studies."

"This is..." he continued. "Not a proposal you can refuse...Roxas."

I felt like I was going to be sick. He expected me to go to _his_ fucking boarding school, where everyone would know me as 'The Head Master's Kid'. Where all the kids would think they were little prodigies and walk around discussing how brilliant they were with each other. It's not like I'm dumb. I get good grades when I _try_, but I'm not exactly one of those kids who plans to go to Harvard or P.D.U. and uses all their extra time studying. The only plus side about Oblivion Academy was that it was supposed to have a great science program, or so said Olette at any rate. She'll be there too; I remembered her applying months ago. Apparently it's a very _selective_ school. There's one thing I actually _like_ in school and it's science. There's just something refreshing about dissecting a frog, or mixing dangerous chemicals; something distinctly unlike art and music.

After a while, I finished my internal consideration and realized that I hadn't actually _said_ anything yet. It's not like I had to or anything. He already made it clear that I couldn't say 'no', but there was something uncomfortable and stuffy about the silence the car had fallen into. "I'll go." I said after taking a long and deep breath. "But only if you enroll me as 'Roxas LeBlanc', and _only _if you don't tell anyone we're related, not even the teachers. Also, I want to stay in the dorms." I exhaled noisily from the passenger seat. My shoulders slumped into the leather seat as another wave of tiredness washed over me.

And that... _that_ is how I ended up here: at the gates to the Oblivion campus, holding a duffel bag of clothes and carrying a skateboard under one arm.


	2. Paopu's Promise

Disclaimer: My boyfriend told me he's glad I don't own Kingdom Hearts, because the story would be crap. I might take offence to that if I didn't think Ven was Sora's father. True story.

Warnings: None for this chapter. SoraXRiku is insinuated, though.

Authors Notes:Thank you everyone for reading, especially if you reviewed (hands out cookies to reviewers). I'd also like to thank the people who add this to their favorites/alerts, if you only favorited this fic you might want to alert as well though... since otherwise you wont know when I update. Speaking of updates, I'm going to aim to update every Friday. This may be subject to change, but in general I'll post once a week. This chapter were entering Sora's POV for the first time, which will be pretty different from Roxas'. I hope you enjoy it all the same, and don't worry, Roxas returns next Friday. Thanks so much for giving my story a chance.

* * *

**Text Books, Test Tubes, Basketballs and Paper Hearts**

** or**

** The High School That Never Was**

** Chapter 2:Paopu's Promise**

**Sora  
**

"Wow!" I said, sucking in a breath at the sight of my new school. The campus is huge! Much bigger than the dinky little school back on the islands. I know, I should have expected as much from the big city, but it's my first time _ever_ off the islands. Everything feels so big and flashy. I wonder if Riku felt this way too...

Riku and I have been friends since we were babies. There weren't many kids on Destiny Islands, so other than the girl that stayed there for a year when I was seven, Riku's the only friend I've ever had. We did everything together: toy sword fighting on the beach, swimming in the ocean, basketball on the main land and racing from dock to dock. I was the only one who could make him laugh and he was always nice to me, even if he did like to tease me a lot... especially about Kairi.

When Kairi left, I cried for almost an entire day. Riku found me hiding in her and my secret spot, a cave tucked away into the small space next to the waterfall, sobbing my eyes out. I thought he was gonna tease me, or call me a crybaby, but he just held his hand out to me. "Let's go," he said.

I nodded, wiping my nose on my wrist, making sad little sobbing noises, and grabbed his hand. I hadn't known where we were going, but it didn't matter so long as Riku was holding my hand. His palm was sweaty and sandy, creating a wet scratchy sensation against my own. He led me out of the cave, toward the Seaside Shack. It was already twilight and the oranges and purples of the sunset shone off the water. On the second floor of the shack, there was a door out onto the bridge; we'd crossed it silently, Riku leading me a step or two behind him. We stood on the smaller island that broke away from the shore of my home island. Riku lived on the mainland like most of the locals.

"I've been coming here a lot lately," Riku said, shuffling from foot to foot. "While you and Kairi were playing. Know why?"

I shook my head. I hadn't even thought about what Riku was doing when Kairi and I were alone. I suddenly felt like a very bad friend. What _had_ Riku been doing? Had he been lonely?

"I was trying to get..._this_!" Riku removed a yellow, star-shaped fruit from his pocket with a flourish. "It's a _Paopu fruit_!"

"Ohhh..." I said, surprised. "You mean like the one in the story?"

"Duh," Riku said, smiling. "What other kind is there?" He grinned at me and ruffled my hair. "They grow on that tree over there," he explained, gesturing to the very bent tree that looked sort of like a palm. "I got this one yesterday, right after Kairi left. I thought you might be sad, so here," Riku held the Paopu out to me, "let's share it!"

"Huh?" I didn't understand. Wouldn't Riku rather share it with a girl? In the story, the girl married the boy who shared a Paopu with her. "Riku... You want to marry me?" I asked, eyes wide and mingled with shock and confusion.

Riku laughed and grabbed my hand again. "I don't want to marry you, dummy. Think about the legend, not the story," he said, bringing our clasped hands up between us, fingers intertwined. "I want to _stay_ with you... _always._"

"Ah!" I felt my face grow hot. "Riku..." I said lamely, lost for words.

"Let's always be friends, Sora."

"Yeah," I said with a smile, eyes closed against the glare of the sun. "_Always_."

We shared the Paopu fruit by the light of the setting sun, fingers still interlaced. It's our most important promise, even years later when all Riku could talk about was getting off the islands. He wanted to apply to some fancy boarding school in the city. Before he left, he made me promise I'd get in the next year, so we could be together again. Riku's a lot smarter than me, so it wasn't easy getting into the same school, but every time I thought about giving up I remembered our promise of everlasting friendship and got my butt back in gear. Now here I am, feeling way out of place, inside the gates of Oblivion Academy.

One of the weird things about City Nevers is that it's always raining here. I heard from the train conductor that a sunny day here is a rare sight, so I might not see the Sun for weeks! It must be some strange weather fluke, like the rain clouds were following someone in town around, because there's plenty of sunshine in the next town over: Twilight Town. I didn't see much rain back home, save the occasional tropical storm, and there's something sort of dreary about the rain that makes me extremely home sick. I want to find Riku. Then he can tell me about all the times he's gotten caught in the rain and danced to class. Then again, Riku's probably to cool to dance in the rain now. I have a vague memory of Riku and I soaked to the bone, dancing and singing to the sky. Was Kairi there too?

My daydreams are cut short by the loud squelch my sneaker makes as I step in a rather muddy looking puddle. Oh great, not only are my feet all muddy now, but I'm hopelessly lost. I guess thinking about Riku and looking at your feet will do that to you. There's a helpful looking sign up ahead, but I can't make it out in the cloud-induced darkness. I run forward to get a better look and, _of _course, I slip on the stupid puddle and fall flat on my face. My bag bursts open in protest to the many, _many_ books shoved into it, all of which are now sitting in one of the many mud-puddles.

"Having trouble, klutz?" Someone asks from above me, in a bored and slightly mocking voice that makes me think, for a split second, of Riku and- "Need a hand?" Oh! The someone is talking to me!

I look up at my would-be savior. His hair is blond and spiked up in a gravity defying manner I'm no stranger to. His eyes are the same shade of blue as mine. In fact, with his height, eyes, and body type, we could be twins! I stumble to my feet, grabbing my now damp books and shoving them back into my bag. "Yeah, thanks! Could you tell me where the dorms are?" I say all in a rush.

"Straight up ahead," he gestures over his shoulder. "The buildings all have name plates, so just look for yours..." He trails off, eyeing me up and down uneasily.

"Thank you so much!" I say, extending my free hand to him and offering my best smile. "I'm Sora. Are you a freshman too? What's your name?"

He doesn't take my hand, but instead,looks at it with slight disdain; It must be the mud. I used that hand to break my fall, after all. "Roxas," he answers, looking at me like I might be dangerous in the crazy sort of way. He walks around me, keeping a girth of five feet or so.

"See you around, Roxas!" I call after him. He was nice; I hope we can be friends. After all, the more friends I make here the better. I'm sure Riku's already made tons of friends.

Following Roxas' directions, I find a large circle of buildings, none of which have any _visible_ name plates. Not that much is visible in this semi darkness. I scan the buildings, scouring them for some sort of identification. "Trinity House... Trinity House... Trinity House..." I say happily to no one in particular, meandering from building to building.

"You're not lost, are you?" a girl behind me asks, giggling.

"Wah? N-no, not really, I just- KAIRI!" I stumble backward and land on my butt in another large mud-puddle.

"Sora?" Her pretty blue eyes swell in surprise.

"Kairi! It's been so long, what are you doing here?!" I can't get the words out fast enough. My stomach has jumped into my throat all of a sudden. "Wait, that's not... How are you?!" I stand back up shakily.

She laughs at me, tossing a clump of reddish-brownish hair over her shoulder. It is so _long_ now! It used to be so short, Riku would say she looked like a boy. "I just started school here, what about you, Sora? I never thought I'd see you again, especially in a place like this," she pauses to giggle again. "Wouldn't you rather be slacking off?"

"Th-that's not fair," I stammer, my face growing hot. "I don't _slack off_'!"

"Oh really," she leans closer and I can smell her shampoo, like strawberries, same as when we were little. "Then I look forward to getting to know the new, non-slacker, Sora! Let's go inside. Trinity House, right? I'm staying there too," she holds out her hand to me and I suddenly remember Riku.

I wipe the mud off on the side of my pants and grab her hand, shaking the feeling off. It isn't everyday You're reunited with your childhood friend like this. Riku can wait.


	3. Rainclouds On My Parade

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts... But I have a bobble-head cat on my desk! =D

Warnings: More swearing (it's in Roxas' POV again...), and Sora wanting to kiss Roxas (harhar).

Authors Notes: I'm really sorry this is late guys. I know I set the deadline last week, _knowing_ that I was going on a week long ski trip, but when I got home I was EXHAUSTED and went straight to sleep. I tried to edit it last night actually, but I failed miserably, and my boyfriend had to drag me off to bed. I'll try to keep my updates on Friday night, but if there's no update you might want to check Saturday as well. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I know things are moving at a snails pase, but the real story should be underway soon. Also I'd love some reviews if it's not too much trouble, they really get my butt in gear and I love hearing from you guys.

* * *

**Text Books, Test Tubes, Basketballs and Paper Hearts**

** or**

** The High School That Never Was**

** Chapter 3: Rainclouds On My Parade  
**

**Roxas**

Lugging my skateboard under one arm, I come upon the large circle of dorms, looking particularly uninviting just for me, I suspect. I've been on this campus enough times to know my way around, what with trips to visit Gramps back in the day, or even bring my _father_ a change of clothes when he had to work late. Even so, the road to the dorms is a fairly simple one and you'd have to be pretty thick to get lost. So with very minimal effort, I'm able to come face to face with what seems to be the most horrific looking sign I've ever seen.

It's written on a large piece of art paper, laminated for rain protection. The picture on it depicts what appears to be a rather crude drawing of a cartoon dog, duck and mouse. They all have their hands (paws?) held together in front of them, and a large green heart is scribbled beneath them. Above the rather poorly drawn picture, the sign proudly declares "TRINITY HOUSE!" in large rainbow letters. I groan inwardly, and impulsively tear the sign off the door, tossing it to the ground. If one less person has to see that monstrosity of a sign, then that should justify a little vandalism. Even my _father_ can draw better then that.

Feeling sort of dubious after the ugly sign and the rainbow lettering, I reach up with my empty hand and pull open the door. It takes a good yank or two, since it's one of those particularly stubborn doors that seems to be weighted down for no reason at all, except of coarse, to make you look like a sissy, an idiot, or both. Inside, the dorm is brightly lit and painted an array of neon primary colors. The furniture is all overly plush and animal printed; it looks kind of like something out of Dr. Seuss, or else a rather sick children's show about an animal lover gone psycho.

I am musing about the psycho cutting up his pet dog, when I'm assaulted by a rather cheery looking guy who'd just appeared from the top of the stairs. He's wearing a white collared shirt and tie underneath a familiar looking blue and gray sweater vest baring the school's crest: a sort of spear shape next to a capital OA. "Hey there buddy! Welcome to Oblivion Academy, hyuk." He's smiling at me in this really creepy way, his lip covering all but two buck teeth, which may be responsible for his lisp of sorts. His hair is black and slicked back into _pigtails,_ and even though he's a inch or so shorter then me, his shoes look about three times the size of mine. I have to wonder for a second if he's the psycho skinning big cats for the dorm's sofa. "My name's Goofy!" he tells me proudly, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. There's definitely something wrong with him. "Me and Donald are your dorm mothers!" he says, leaning in really close to me so that I have to take a step back. He raises his eyebrows expectantly, waiting on me to say something.

I want to say a great many things at the moment, for instance: this is insane. Is this some kind of a joke? Do you have dental problems? Had any of the chairs been pets? What I end up telling him, whist he rocks in and out of my personal space impatiently, is: "_Donald and I_." Because honestly, what kind of "exclusive" school's staff can't even use proper grammar? Whatever... this has to be a joke anyway; a rather cruel one played by my father to get me to stay at home. I shouldn't let it get to me.

"What's your name buddy?" He asks, ignoring my correction. Then again, maybe the poor guy doesn't understand. Maybe my _father_ picked up some crazy homeless guy to teach me a lesson. It doesn't sound _that_ far fetched.

Taking pity on the guy, I answer him with minimal sarcasm, which is particularly difficult, what with all the rainbows and crazy hobos. "I'm Roxas. Roxas LeBlanc." I give him my full name in case the poor sod doesn't know how to read, maybe he's memorized what room I have, being hired by my _father_ and all.

He must know his ABC's though, because he scrolls down the list held in his left hand from the A's to the L's. "You're in the Blue Trinity suite on the second floor," he tells me cheerfully, "Here's your key." He fishes around in one of his overly large pockets for a moment before producing a large silver key on a Mickey Mouse key chain. I take the key hesitantly, touching him as little as possible, and begin my assent to the second floor.

"Blue Trinity's" door is painted a ridiculously obnoxious shade of electric blue. Tacked up on the door is another sign, this one made of poster board. "Blue Trinity" is written in the center of the sign in large typed lettering, along with "WELCOME: Sora, Roxas, Piglet, Tidus and Pooh" scrawled across the bottom in ballpoint pen. I blanch slightly at the names "Piglet" and "Pooh", wondering yet again if this isn't all a setup. But maybe not. Maybe there were just unfortunate kids with crappy names like that.

I unlock the door with my new key, briefly considering living on the street or staying with one of the gang. Hayner's mom likes me; she calls me "clean" and "upstanding". And he's only a short walk from the school if I cut through their neighbor's yard. I brush off the thought before it can haunt me, since there's no way my father would allow _that_. Hayner's just a slum kid as far as he's concerned; a _bad influence, _or whatever. Damn minor laws...

I pray silently to whatever god, that the inside of "Blue Trinity" will not be a repeat of the straight jacket designer from down stairs. To my relief, the door opens up to a fairly quaint looking room. The walls are off white, contrasted to the stained wood floor. An old looking brown sofa is pushed against the far wall, with matching chairs off to the sides. Two bare, ceiling high bookcases are set up on either side of the couch, and a standing lamp is positioned next to the left armrest. The only blue apparel is a set of modest periwinkle blinds drawn over both windows.

Four doors lead off to the right. The first, upon inspection, is a bathroom, equipped with two toilet stalls, one shower and a counter sink. The other three doors are empty dorm rooms, their occupant's luggage pilled on the floor, waiting to be unpacked. In the second room I recognize my green duffel in the luggage pile, among a Thomas the Tank Engine trunk and a Blue's Clues bag, as well as my box of textbooks. The bedding I sent is stacked on one of the fourposter beds. My roommates bedding, stacked in the same fashion on the bed opposite mine, is Dalmatian print, giving me a strange deja-vu of the first floor. On top of the sheets is a large Mickey Mouse pillow.

I go from room to room after that, before eventually deciding that my roommate must be either retarded, or a genius kid who skipped five grades. None of the other occupants have animal print bedding, or a five year-old's luggage. I also found a wooden sword and some stuffed animals under the desk. Even our neighbors, the poor monsieurs Piglet and Pooh seem to have packed in a relatively normal fashion. Although, one of them does seem to have packed a 13 ounce bottle of honey.

* * *

The air outside is too fucking cold for September, but that's what you get, what with the constant dark clouds blocking out the sunlight and the tall buildings channeling all the wind. I'm beginning to hate this city almost as much as I hate my _father_ for sending me to his pretentious school and sicking daft hobos on me. It's drizzling abysmally, making me not only freezing, but _wet_.

There's a weird looking kid up ahead, most likely a new student, with crazy spiky hair. He's teetering around the puddles, over balanced by his large shoulder bag. He squints at the signpost to my left for a minute, and upon recognition, gives it a lusting look, like a guinea pig after a treat. He runs forward and, with a sickening lurch, smashes into the concrete. I choke out a few laughs before I can stop myself; it's hard _not_ to laugh at that sort of thing. Schadenfreude, or whatever. Olette told me all about it after going to a musical with her folks.

"Having trouble?" I ask the poor, wet guinea pig. His bag exploded, leaving his books soggy and dejected in a puddle. Out of general detest for the world I add a mocking: "Klutz." The freak gets this goofy grin on his face, like he's recalling really good ice cream. It's sort of sickening actually, like a love sick school girl. So I break him out of his euphoric state with an impatient, "Need a hand?" He looks back up at me, as if only just remembering I am standing here, in the fucking _rain,_ offering him a hand. His slack jaw pulls back into another shit-eating grin, and he springs to his feet like a jackrabbit, stumbling slightly, and shoves his damp books back into his bag.

"Yeah, thanks!" He's giving me the same lusting look he'd given the signpost earlier, and I feel another onslaught of fear for my person. I wonder which would be worse: eaten by a rodent, or skinned for a sofa. "Could you tell me where the dorms are?" He asks, eyes shining beacons of hope.

As pissed off as I am, I don't fancy telling the kid to piss off. After all, I offered him a "hand", whatever that meant. He'll probably just fallow me around if I don't deal with him now anyways. Whiny energetic kids are such a pain, especially the ones who are dumb enough to get lost finding the dorms. "Straight up ahead," I offer, jabbing my thumb behind me toward the dorms I'd just left. "The buildings all have name plates," horrible, _horrible_ name plates, "so just look for yours..." I trail off, giving the kid an uneasy look. He looks happy enough to kiss me.

"Thank you so much!" He says, smiling like a kid on Christmas morning. He shoves his hand at me, waiting expectantly for me to shake it. I wonder, insanely, if he will throw me to to the ground if I give him the leverage. Heaven knows he has the energy. "I'm Sora. Are you a freshman too? What's your name?" He babbles on inanely, unawares, apparently, of the fact that I'm afraid to shake his hand. He doesn't retract the hand either, so I find myself studying the mud on his palm.

"Roxas, "I answer his last question, through some bout of insanity I'm sure. I regret it instantly, and force myself to walk away now, before things get too personal. I 'm not exactly in the market for new (crazy) friends. As I pass, I make sure to leave copious amounts of space between us, just in case.

"See you around, Roxas!" he calls from behind me, happy as can be.

"Not if I can help it..." I mutter under my breath, shoving my hands back into my pockets and continuing on.

It isn't a very long walk, in fact I find myself in front of the gates that, roughly an hour ago, had been my own personal entrance to hell, when Olette calls out to me. She's running towards me, calling my name and waving one arm above her head. I stop and wait for her to join me, fiddling with the lint in my right pocket. She grabs hold of my left arm, panting for breath and offering me a shaky smile. "I called you, like, five times dude." She says, rolling her eyes at me. "Why didn't you stop?"

"Didn't hear you," I answer truthfully, shrugging my shoulders. "It doesn't matter anyways, let's just get out of here. We can hang in twilight town," I suggest. "I could really, _really_ go for some Sea-Salt ice cream right now."

"Sure," she says, bless her sole, extracting my hand from my pocket and lacing our fingers together. "Thanks for treating me."

* * *

I return to the dorm later that night with Olette, full of ice cream and considerably less irritable. It's been a long day, but all in all not _awful_. Then again, classes don't start until tomorrow. _Then_ we'll see how much fun this place is...

"I'm staying on the third floor," Olette tells me, squeezing my hand briefly, before releasing it, as we approach the large metal doors to Trinity House. "In Red Trinity."

"Oh," I say dumbly, suddenly aware that I'll have to meet my new _roommate _now.  
"I have a roommate." It seems like something she ought to know.

"Me too," she tells me, offering a smile. "I met her earlier, and she's nice enough." She pauses here, as if considering something. "I'm not sure _you'd_ like her though. Her name's Selphie."

"Cool," I'm distracted and she can tell, but she still lets me go ahead of her, with a casual wave behind me, and retreat into my dorm. There's an odd silence hanging in the air; a pleasant surprise really. I wouldn't have even dreamed of peace and quiet on the first day. It's almost of boring really. Just a quite, dark room and crickets chirping outside. Light shines under the door of my room and after scrubbing a hand through my hair and yawning, I decide to brave a roommate if it means a warm bed.

"Roxas!" is the first thing that greets me when I open the door, momentarily blinded by the light. Once my eyes adjust, I'm able to recognize the same weirdo I helped earlier, smiling at me like I'm a friend he's known for _ages,_ instead of a stranger who's apparently his new bunk mate. I mean, who the hell _is_ this kid? He remembers _my_ name, but I can't, for the life of me, remember his. It starts with an S I think... Steve? Sara? "I can't believe we're roommates! How cool!" He grins at me, awaiting my response.

"Er... Neither can I, um, Sam," I venture a guess.

"Sora," he corrects. "So do you want to talk about our pasts?" He sounds like a girl, and my bed is looking more and more appealing.

"Actually I think I'll just go to sleep."

"Oh..." He looks putout for about a third of a second, before he leaps up and flicks off the lights, hopping into his already made bed as I attempt to make my own. "G'night Roxas!"

"Goodnight, Sara," I mutter, securing my bottom sheet in place.

"Sora," he corrects again, laughing in the darkness. "You're bad at names, aren't you?"

"Whatever," I grunt, laying down the blankets before crawling into bed. He starts to say something else, but I miss it, because the moment my head hits the pillow I'm fast asleep.


End file.
